I have read the daily court reports from the begining of the case, what will have been told in that case will have been the tip of the iceburg for Arthur.
24 hours a day, every minute, every second will have been hell for that poor boy, his only respite would have been sleep. You can see in that video of him with his bedding, the first thought in his head was the pain he was to endure that day. Maybe there was a few seconds when he awoke that it didn't exist and then reality hits.
No one loves me.
At 6 he knew full well what was happening to him, that his protector now hated him along with the primary tomentor and prison guard. Tustin had persuaded his father that Arthur was evil.
They say the age of concience is 7, Arthur knew how wrong this was, the pain of him knowing his father had betrayed him must have been so utterly breaking for him.
That is what kills me in all of this, is that Hughes, although an idiot would not have crossed that line with another partner, maybe.
That does not absolve him of guilt in my opinion, he knew when he cried in the shower after beating Arthur and 'going to town on him' that he had crossed that line for himself and for Tustin.
The treament of standing unaided for so long is treatment they use in concentation camps and against the Geneva convention of abuse to prisoners of war. They both did this.
In my mind Hughes is a murderer.
Arthur knew that.